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Ain’t Life Sweet?

Sweet William is a tall-ish cousin of the carnation (they get about 1 to 2 feet high) and comes in a variety of variegated pinks, whites, reds and magentas. Plus, it’s a great flower for part-shade areas where you need to add a little height – but not too much. Sweet William has a sweet fragrance (hence the name) and is a perennial … sorta kinda.

It’s called a short-lived perennial meaning it probably won’t bloom the first season you plant it, then it will be absolutely stunningly gorgeous the second year, and the third year and beyond, eh, it’s a crapshoot as to what you’ll get if you don’t intervene and replant some new ones. But let’s not worry about the future; let’s enjoy the here and now with these lovelies.

But, back to the future, these little beauties willingly self-seed, so left to their own devices, new plants will come up again each year. This also means it’s easy to collect seeds from them at the end of the season, of which I have a gajillion and am making it to my mission to turn our yarden into a Sweet William soiree. I’ve read conflicting reports about Sweet William’s attractiveness for bees so, for now, I’m planting them just because I like them but if the bees like ’em too, all the better.

Plus, of all the perennials I’ve tried to start from seed, Sweet Williams have been the easiest and most willing. And, clearly, they survived the Winter That Would Not Quit without any help from me. Suffice to say, I am a Sweet William super fan.